The mission of Child Soldier Relief Foundation (CSR), a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, tax-exempt organization designated by the Internal Revenue Code, is to advocate on behalf of child soldiers by serving as a central repository of information on all topics relating to the topic of child soldiers.

Landmark ruling against child slavery in Niger…

A positive development in the legal battle for helping child soldiers…

In Niger, a court ruled that the country was culpable in failing to protect a young girl who was sold into slavery when she was twelve years old. According to the New York Times, “[the] ruling, the first of its kind by a regional tribunal now sitting in Niamey, Niger’s capital, ordered the government to pay about $19,000 in damages to the woman, Hadijatou Mani, who is now 24…

“…Slavery is outlawed throughout Africa, but it persists in pockets of Niger, Mali, Mauritania and amid conflicts like the one in northern Uganda.”

This case marks a new trend for holding governments responsible for the protection of its children.

A Ugandan parliamentary committee heard last week that as many as 30,000 children have been abducted in Uganda over the last two decades by the Lord’s Resistance Army for use in its operations had been sold in Sudan’s Darfur region… After their sale in Darfur, the children were employed as child soldiers and laborers…

Perhaps rulings such as this could set the stage for demanding accountability from nations where children are sold into slavery and then forced to serve as child soldiers.